1. Field
Embodiments described herein generally relate to multimedia content management and, more particularly, relate to a method and apparatus for displaying multimedia content on a display device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Rapid proliferation of content available via the Internet has resulted in widespread use of the Internet. Internet users spend a significant amount of time browsing the Internet to communicate with other users, to conduct various search related activities, execute applications, and the like. Such increase in Internet use has led more and more users to access Internet resources (e.g., web pages, multimedia clips and/or content, emails and/or the like) via mobile devices (e.g., a mobile phone, an electronic book reader, a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), a hand-held gaming device and/or the like).
Generally, rich multimedia content available from animated and/or interactive websites via the Internet requires significant computing resources (e.g., relatively fast processor, substantial memory size and/or the like) to facilitate smooth rendering and display of such rich multimedia content. In many instances, display devices, such as mobile devices, have limited computing resources. Consequently, some types of display devices (e.g., mobile devices) are unable to display rich multimedia content available from certain websites due to insufficient computing resources. In particular, display devices with sufficient computing capability may render streaming multimedia content provided in a SWF file format (e.g. the SWF File Format Specification (Version 10) by Adobe Systems Incorporated of San Jose, Calif.) using FLASH® Player software (FLASH is a registered trademark of Adobe Systems Incorporated). However, display devices with insufficient computing resources cannot display content from a SWF file nor can these devices execute FLASH Player software.
Conventionally, various techniques are available to improve the display of multimedia content specifically for mobile devices, especially cell phones and personal digital assistants. For example, entire websites may be designed for use by mobile devices such that when a mobile device accesses a given website, only the mobile formatted pages are sent to the mobile device. The mobile formatted pages typically have the rich content removed. In another technique, upon request by a mobile device, an entire website may be processed to reformat each page of the website for mobile device viewing. Alternatively, each page of a website, as the pages are requested by a mobile device, may be reformatted for mobile device viewing. These techniques consume substantial resources to store reformatted pages, reformat entire websites or reformat the pages as they are requested.
Therefore, there is a need in the art for a method and apparatus for displaying multimedia content on a display device, especially when the display device has limited computing resources.